Does This Darkness Have A Name?
by Emily Reece
Summary: Remember the school shooting? This is my spin on that day and what becomes of their lives in the aftermath. While there are some similarities, the story is going in a completely different direction. Rated M for violence and cussing! Review please!


DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. Some of the quotes were direct from episode 3.16 'With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept.'

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Seeing as how I'm taking an actually episode and reworking it, the first part will seem a little jumpy since I find it hard to make a smooth transaction into the next scene. I apologize for that. This is not my first fan fiction, for the record. This is, however, my first One Tree Hill fiction. Reviews are greatly appreciative, as is constructive criticism. Take your flames somewhere else, please! Chapter two will be up shortly.

Jimmy Edwards placed the cigarette between his dry lips, his eyes wandering past all of the students entering the building of Tree Hill High. He brought the lighter up slowly to the end of the cigarette, the flame danced against the paper of the cigarette, blackening the white paper as it lit the cherry. He inhaled deeply, the smoke lingering in his lungs before he finally blew it out. As the smoke permeated through the air, he inhaled once more, this time with more force. As the smoke filled his lungs, his eyes watered briefly for the large intake of smoke was burning his lungs. Smoking had been a habit that he had picked up merely a few days beforehand. Blowing the smoke out of his nose, he dropped the cigarette to the ground and did not even bother putting it out. "Here we go." He said to himself, walking into the school.

Upon entering the school, Jimmy saw the normal behavior of all of his peers. Everyone was laughing and joking around. Not even in their wildest dreams would they have thought the next events to be truly happening before their very eyes. His eyes continued to wander around the school before stopping dead set on Rusty, the jerk that beat him up the night before. He was, of course, messing with his locker. Jimmy's books were scattered all over the hallway and getting kicked around as people walked past. After being bored of destroying Jimmy's locker, Rusty and his friends began to walk away, not expecting the next thing to happen.

With a shaky hand, Jimmy pulled a handgun out of his hoodie pocket and pointed it straight out in front of him. When people began to scream, it was then that Rusty turned around to see the gun pointed at him. He instantly dropped to the floor just as Jimmy pulled the trigger. The bullet shot out of the barrel at lightning speeding, smashing through glass. At that very moment, Brooke Davis had grabbed Peyton Sawyer and pulled her down to the ground. As the students of Tree Hill High took off running for the nearest exit, Jimmy shoved the gun back into his pocket and walked away like nothing had happened.

Brooke ran out of the school as fast as she could, not realizing she had lost Peyton along the way. Seeing the bus full of all the basketball players coming from morning practice, Brooke ran to it. Coach Whitey Durham was the first to get off, followed by Nathan and Lucas Scott. All three had looks of confusion on their face. "What the hell is going on here?" Whitey questioned just as Brooke approached them.

"Lucas, Lucas!" Brooke cried, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "Somebody has a gun in there. They started shooting and… I don't know where Peyton is. Peyton was by me but I lost her. I can't find Peyton. Lucas!" She cried out, tears rolling down her cheeks. Lucas' eyes were wide as he looked over at Nathan, whose eyes were just as wide.

"Haley," Nathan said in a barely audible voice. "Haley!" He finally screamed out, already running towards the school. "She's in the tutor center. I have to get her!"

"Nathan!" Whitey yelled after him in a gruff, angry voice. "Get back here! Everyone get on the bus!"

"I'll get him, Coach." Lucas said as he pulled away from Brooke, getting ready to chase after Nathan and tackle him. He had barely moved two steps when Whitey grabbed him by the collar, pulling him back towards the bus.

"Get on the bus, Lucas." He said in the same gruff voice, shoving him onto the bus and telling the bus driver to take them to the other gym. With a nod of his head, the bus driver started the bus and took off for the gym, even through all of Lucas' yelling that he needed to get into the school.

Haley James Scott slammed the tutor center door shut and locked it. Turning off the lights, she viewed everyone in the room. "Okay, just sit down against the wall." She told him, taking a seat next to Skills Taylor. Next to Skills were Rachel Gatina, then Marcus, then Abby Brown and then… Jimmy Edwards. His eyes were wide with fear as he looked at the fellow classmates that sat beside him. It amazed him that neither of them had seen that he was the one who had shot the gun.

"What kind of fucking psycho shoots up a school?" Marcus said in an angry voice, his head resting against the wall, his eyes focused on the ceiling.

"Why would you call him that?" Jimmy asked in a soft voice. The voice of someone who wasn't a troublemaker, someone who was a scared, lost and lonely boy.

Marcus turned to look at Jimmy; a look of disgust masked his face. "Oh, I don't know. Anyone who tries to fucking shoot someone is a goddamn psycho in my opinion and I'm sure in others' opinions as well, fat-ass."

Meanwhile, in the hallway, as Nathan was entering the school, Peyton was slowly crawling away from where the glass had been shattered. Tears were rolling down her face as she entered the library, her leg dragging behind her. She continued to crawl further into the library before finally stopping behind a bookshelf. Placing a hand on her left leg, Peyton winced. She wanted to believe that it had only been glass that cut her but she knew the truth. She knew that it was a bullet in her leg.

It was merely two second after Peyton had entered the library that Nathan passed it. He had gone into Whitey's office and retrieved a bat, as if that would stop a bullet. Walking silently through the halls, he was startled by a confused Mouth. Mouth had been in the AV room working on when he finally decided it was time to go to class.

"Mouth! What are you doing?" Nathan questioned in a quiet voice.

"What is going on? I was in the AV room and I come out here and it's like Dawn of the Dead or something…" Mouth said loudly, causing Nathan to shove him against a wall and clasp his hand over Mouth's mouth.

"Someone has a gun. We need to go to the tutor center… Haley's in there." Nathan said quietly. When Mouth nodded, the two took off towards the tutor center.

When there was a pounding on the door of the tutor center, everyone snapped to attention. Haley was the first to jump up, followed by the rest. When an ID was slid under the door, Haley bent down and grabbed it. "It's Nathan!" She called out happily, going to unlock the door.

"No! Don't open. It could be a trick." Marcus glared, hurrying over to the door to stop Haley.

"No… It's really Nathan. This is his driver's license." She told him, holding up the ID to show up.

He shook his head no. "So? For all you know, that could be the shooter out there. Nathan could be dead and the shooter just took his ID."

Haley, not wanting to believe that scenario, walked over to the door and put her face to it. "Always," she said in a soft voice, just loud enough for the person on the other side to here.

"And forever," the voice replied, clearly Nathan.

As Haley unlocked the door, Marcus tried to protest once more but was quickly silenced by Skills. "If she say it's him, then it's him, aight?" He told him, pushing him away from Haley as she opened the door. As soon as the door opened, Nathan and Mouth walked in.

"Let's go," Nathan said, trying to get everyone to leave the tutor room so they could get out of there.

"No." Jimmy said firmly just as everyone was getting up to leave. It was then that everyone saw the handgun pointing at all of them. He then made his way to the front of the room, his eyes set in a glare. "Cell phones, everything, slide it over here." He instructed before his eyes narrowed on Rachel. "Pepper spray, too."

"Jimmy, what are you doing?" Mouth questioned, completely in shock that his old best friend was holding them hostage.

"What am I doing? What am I doing?" Jimmy repeated, waving the gun about as he shook with anger. "I'm waving a gun around for a good laugh. No. What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to get you guys to listen to me. The only reason you ever listened to me was because someone exposed the time capsule. Even after that, barely anyone noticed me and if they did notice me, it was just because I was the loser who let out everyone's secrets. The only reason you're listening to me now is because I have a gun. If I didn't have this gun, would you give me the time of day?"

"I would, Jim," Mouth told him.

"Yeah, just like you've given me the time of day these past years. You've been too busy hanging out with your new basketball star Nathan and little miss rock star Haley. Then there's Lucas who completely abandoned me for his new best buddy, also known as his half brother. Well, I can't forget Skills! You've abandoned me, too."

"Look, dawg, you can't blame us. It's a two way street. You didn't try either." Skills said, shaking his head.

"Jimmy… Please. You don't have to do this! You can change this." Haley pleaded her eyes wide as she watched Jimmy extend his shaky hand that was holding a hand gun. His eyes were wide as well, showing immense fear. It was clear to everyone that was in that room that he had absolutely not idea what he was doing.

"I can't." It was such a simple phrase, yet it contained so much meaning behind it. "I have started something and I can't finish it. I just can't. My life… It's gone. There's no point in quitting now. They'll throw me in jail and then I'll be a waste there… But this way… This way I'll be making an impact. You won't remember me as 'that guy from the time capsule.' No, you'll remember me as the guy who shot the school up. Maybe next time you'll consider picking on someone." The fear in his eyes had disappeared; there was absolutely no emotion in his eyes.

"Jimmy, you're a minor. You haven't killed anyone so the sentence won't be nearly as bad. You can quit this." Mouth pleaded, tears slowly rolling down his face as Rachel rubbed his back, her head resting on his shoulder. "Just stop."

Marcus sat in the back of the room, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. He could not believe that the people in the room with him were acting as if Jimmy could just saying, 'Okay, my bad. I'll put the gun away,' and everything would be well once more. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He said loudly, getting everyone's attention. "Why are you fucking lying for this kid? He's going to go to jail… Prison, maybe. He's fucking holding us hostage and you're trying to convince him that we can all just walk away from this like it never happened?"

"Dang, will you just shut up?" Skills had remained mostly silent through this ordeal but every word that came out of Marcus' mouth was just another word of hate that would tempt Jimmy to pull the trigger sooner. Clearly Marcus missed the notice where if you're nice to someone holding you hostage, your chances of leaving alive are greater.

"Why should I? This fat-fuck is holding a fucking gun in my face and you want me to be nice to him? You've got to be fucking kidding me." Marcus could feel the anger boiling beneath his tanned flesh.

As soon as Brooke and Lucas had gotten to the gym, they realized they were unable to leave unless they had a parent. Lucas instantly called his mom to come get him and take him back to the school. Since Brooke's parents were in California, Karen was able to get her, too and they all returned to the school that was now surrounded by the town's people, the whole police department and the SWAT team.

Keith arrived shortly and hurried over to Karen, Lucas and Brooke. "What's going on?" He questioned. Karen had given him a call but didn't elaborate on what was happening.

"Nathan's in there," Lucas told him, his eyes staring intently at the school. "So is Peyton."

With a nod of his head, Keith made his way over to Dan who was busy looking at his cell phone. "Danny, do you know who it is?" He questioned, his eyes wandering over to the cell phone.

"Yeah, Nathan just texted me… He says it's Jimmy Edwards."

Upon hearing Jimmy's name, Keith felt his stomach do back flips. He had known Jimmy for years. Lucas had been best friends with Jimmy, Mouth, Skills, Fergie, and Junk. Keith had watched Jimmy grow and the man that he last knew him as was not the monster he's become. "Danny, let me go in there… I can talk to him. Please." Keith pleaded.

Dan instantly shot down the idea. "No, it's too dangerous."

In the tutor center, Jimmy had just let Abby go because she was diabetic and needed medicine. He turned around at that moment to see Nathan had just texted his father. "What is this? Give me that phone, right now!" He called out as Nathan slid it over to him. His eyes were wild, extremely angry to have been deceived.

"Jimmy, just let us go, please!" Rachel pleaded.

"Jim… C'mon. You're not like this. You're a good kid. You're acting like a monster." Haley said as she stood up, despite Nathan's frantic grabs at her, trying to get her to sit back down.

"Do not come any closer, Haley. I am warning you." Jimmy said, his hand gripping the gun tightly.

"You know you can change this. You can stop this. Just put the gun away and let's go. We'll leave here and you can go on with your life." She continued to walk closer to him. Nathan, fearing Haley's life stood up quickly and started walking towards her.

"Sit back down, Nathan or I will shoot!" Jimmy called out, his eyes blazing as he watched Nathan sit down reluctantly. "You don't get it, Haley! I can't just walk out of here and go on with my life. My life is nothing already. I'll go to jail, Haley! You don't get that! I won't be able to move on with my life. I can't. It's too late! Is your skull to fucking thick to figure that out?" Jimmy cried out, the gun pointing at her.

Taking a deep breath, Haley raised her hand and wrapped it around the barrel of the gun. "Jimmy, please, put it down. Shooting someone will only make matters worse."

"Do not touch my gun!" Jimmy bellowed, yanking the gun back, his finger slipping and pulling the trigger.


End file.
